How much of Science Fiction is genuine science? Take away the
fantastical clichés of space-travel, time-travel and artificial
intelligence, and how much of what remains accurately represents
contemporary scientific thinking?

When It Changed is an attempt to put authors and scientists
back in touch with each other, to re-introduce research ideas with
literary concerns, and to re-forge the alloy that once made SF great.
Composed collaboratively – through a series of visits and conversations
between leading authors and practicing scientists – it offers
fictionalised glimpses into the far corners of current research fields,
be they in nanotechnology, invertebrate physiology, particle physics, or
software archaeology. From Planck's Length (the smallest indivisible
distance) to Plankton (potential saviours of the Earth's ecosystem),
from virtual encounters between Witgenstein and Turing, to future
civilisations torn asunder by different readings of the Standard Model,
together these stories represent a literary 'experiment' in the true
sense of the word, and endeavour to isolate a whole new strain of the SF
bug.